Training Log Archive: Nadim

Saint Paul, MN. From Forbes Ave. I took a bike trail to St. Clair Ave. Then over the highway and up to Fairmont Ave, then to behind Saint Paul Academy to S Dunlap St. to Grand Ave., and back to Forbes Ave. It was sunny and about 26 F but it felt nice. The trail had some uneven footing from frozen footprints. The houses along the way were nice, well kept. victorians. One had a wooden replica sculpture about 12 feet tall of the Statue of Liberty. It was displayed in about the location of where one would put a mailbox, on the curb. Along Grand Ave. the sidewalks were vibrant with shoppers. I ran past the Running Room Store that I like to stop in at when I'm in town.

Minneapolis, MN. From about 34 Av S & American / Hwy 494, down into the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge on. Trail/vehicle track. I left our hotel at sunset with it in the low 20s F. It took about 4 minutes to get to the bottom and then it was flat on the floodplain. With The Mall of America so near it was amazing to be in such a wild area so easily. There was about 1-2 inches of snow but where I was vehicles had compacted most of it. With tall grasses and painted sky, it was beautiful and quiet. A bald eagle flew over me at about tree height when I was in a field an what looked like an osprey flew over me on the way back, but more along the Minnesota River.

Busy day. Work, doctor appointments and travel blew away my plans.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to Arlington Rd. riding with Max, then to 12th and C St. SW, Washington, D.C. by myself. It was cooler (upper 30s F) than yesterday morning but warmer than last week so I didn't dress quite as warmly. My hands got cold. Whenever the sun poked through I could feel it through my jacket. I generally felt tired. I've been riding in almost a fixed gear since the cable sheathing for my front derailer is still busted. In higher rear gears I'd get rattleing on the front chain ring so I've been having to spin more. I let it rattle in places. A happy but older looking guy who I saw yesterday passed me slowly again today in about the same place. There was a bunch of other riders spread out that I did pass as I got into Georgetown, just like yesterday. I also converged with a Virginia rider in the same place on 15th Street.

From 12th St & Independence Ave., SW, along the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Circle in Washington, D.C. to Arlington Rd., Bethesda, MD to pick-up Max's bicycle, then to Northfield Rd. I left work late again so I first had to ride through the courtyard. The basement of the building was blocked for floor waxing so I walked in my cleats most of the length of the 2 block long building to get outside to 12th & Independence Ave., SW. Riding back in the dark, I had my laptop and backpack; ~20 lbs. of weight. High winds had been expected earlier in the day but I hardly got out to know if they came then. The wind wasn't too bad when I left but it was still a headwind. I had my warmer cycling jacket that looks black in the day and is reflective white at night. I went across The Mall to stay away from some of the traffic since I was moving slowly. In Georgetown I decided to stop and remove the jacket--it was too warm. Like yesterday evening, I saw more deer right along the trail by first seeing their eyes far off with my headlamp. I was at about 45 minutes at Arlington Ave.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to Arlington Rd. riding with Max, then to 12th and C St. SW, Washington, D.C. by myself. It was damp this morning. Max was tired and reluctant to ride (or even wake up) but once out the door, we proceeded casually. After splitting, there were several cyclist out but I rode alone. There was fog, and glassy Potomac water with reflections. The fog was transitioning to sunshine--very beautiful. It was in the mid 40s F.

From 12th St & Independence Ave., SW, Washington, D.C. to Arlington Rd., Bethesda, MD to pick-up Max's bicycle, then to Northfield Rd. I left work late so I first had to ride through the courtyard and basement of the building to get to 12th & Independence Ave., SW. Riding back in the dark, it was colder than the 50 F, reported by the weather service. There was a pretty good headwind. It kept up most of the way. As I turned away from it and onto a steeper grade, my speed got faster. There were several runners and cyclists out and I was glad to have my headlamp.

With picking-up Max, and rain, cycling didn't materialize. I was a little lazy in the evening too so I chaulk it up to a rest day. I worked on some updates to the Wheaton map.

Event: QOC Oregon Ridge
 

QOC: Oregon Ridge, Cockeysville, MD. Peggy, Max and I got out to the park late in the day. With my calf having been bothersome yesterday, I got ready and took one ibuprofen pill before heading out. I started casually to warm-up. My calf held up okay going up the big hill and side sloping. I tripped on a few things early on (leaves were hiding branches and rocks) as well as did a good bit of walking when climbing. The climb seemed like a lot more than the 230m advertised--my GPS adjusted track recorded 344m. That's overall not so bad really. I saw David Onkst leaving #3 and about what seemed to be close to 1 minute ahead. I made most of this up by the time I got to #4--there David, Dan Quinn, Kim Jepsen, and I converged. My first thought was to go around to the right toward #5 but ultimately, I went up Dave's route, having re-thought being slow on the hillsides. I punched right behind David there and caught-up by taking a slightly better bearing.

Though AP shows me with a rare no-error race, I was running without proper map contact at times and this resulted in two errors on the way to #6. I had decided to save energy and take the longer high route. I didn't execute it correctly as I curved left; it kept feeling like I needed to correct my bearing as this was happening. I finally corrected and dropped into the reentrants. I saw David again, ahead of my by about 30 seconds. I gained but where David paused and went on, I cut left incorrectly for the second error on the same leg. When I saw houses ahead I knew what I'd done and had to cross an extra ridge to get onto the right spur. David was about a minute ahead when I left #6, headed toward #7. We both passed David Levine independently as we stayed left of straight to avoid side reentrants. When David Onkst went through some fallen trees rather than go around them I gained more ground. After crossing the main ridge trail, things weren't matching what I expected them to be. David Onkst was off to my left and running into a reentrant with a ridge to his right--that ridge didn't have a formline knoll so I paused. I decided to go right and that was the correct way.

After #7, I used the trail heading off toward #8. I cut left when the woods opened-up more to my liking, and climbed. I saw a control ahead that didn't look right but I was tempted to go to it. It was getting difficult to read the contours there when I saw Lacho Iliev coming across on what would have been a more direct route than I took. Mihai Sirbu came in behind him too from a different direction. The direction they were headed to made sense so I chased. As I went over a small notch, I recalled getting confused in this area in the summer. I ultimately was too high but ran down to the root stock that Mihai was leaving from.

Going to #9, I chased and passed Mihai after he started walking. I kept straight. Approaching the correct reentrant, I expected the control to be lower and visible. Lacho and later John Baker came back going toward #10 on a dog-leg route. I saw the control a few seconds later. My first thought leaving #9 was to climb on the high route to the right. It was too steep so I dog legged through the reentrant like Lacho too. At the top, things again didn't make sense as I descended. I stopped myself and realized that the saddle for a formline knoll was far to the right. I corrected with maybe 20 seconds lost.

Leaving #10, I stayed low to spread out the climb and use the trail to the left. I was slow climbinb but recovered on the flatter top and got moving well again. I went fairly straight after leaving the pipeline ride and spiked #11. John Baker was approaching #11 when I left. I thought he might catch me so I headed out quickly and kept a good bearing. I almost got sucked off to the right too early when I'd misread the map but I lost no time. I hit a trail intersection about where I wanted to, then crossed into the reentrant with #12. It seemed a long way getting there and at one spot like there was an extra reentrant. I moved well side-hilling toward #13 but didn't push it; I wanted to avoid re-injuring my right calf. Ditto for the run-in but I did pickup the pace on the grass a little bit. It felt good to finish on a gradual downhill.

I was happy to finish as well as I had given my calf still healing, and that I've been eating too much--I really had wanted to keep my weight under 180 lbs. at least until the new year got here. The big chinese dinner yesterday had a lot to do with that failure.

Blue - Splits